Renewable Energy Resources in Context: Management, Economic, Environment, and Societal Opportunities for Clean Energy Transformation

Dear Colleagues,

Renewable energy solutions are no longer on the margin but have transformed into mainstream lifeline critical infrastructures. Price parity and the diversity of models for adoption for many renewable technologies are increasing the uptake and use of resources, while the dual pressures of reducing carbon emissions within changing geopolitical and climatic environments increases the need for secure, clean, flexible, and dependable energy resources. This dynamic environment for renewable energy technology indicates a shift in approach to reflect the needs of a maturing market.

While the technologist-based approach to renewable energy resource exploitation was successful enough to result in a maturing market, there is mounting evidence of shortcomings including the maldistribution of benefits of clean energy resources across demographics, R&D pathways and infrastructures that limit diversity in technology development, and limited market uptake due to institutional structures designed for older energy systems.

New thinking, data, methodologies, models, and institutional structures are still needed to deliver the benefits of Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment (RDD&D) in clean energy system. This Special Issue calls for case studies, new approach testing and result sharing, and other research that identifies or tells the story of potentially innovative approaches or perspectives on clean energy technology development and deployment that offer pathways for solving the challenges of a mature, rather than a nascent, market. It contributes to the discussion of improving our innovation approaches to have better (increased market share, opportunities for scaling, lower societal costs) results from public, private, and philanthropic investments in renewable energy investments. 

Dr. Jill Engel-Cox
Dr. Elizabeth Doris
Guest Editors

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• society–technology–innovation nexus
• multi-disciplinary approaches to clean energy solutions
• science, technology, and innovation
• community engagement in early-stage R&D
• energy equity and justice
• social sciences and humanities
• multi-nodal modeling
• AI data and analysis